Last month, I had a serendipitous meeting while I was at Owl Tree Roasting for a chat with proprietor, Travis Kizer. (Stay tuned for that post soon!) As I was leaving the Owl Tree building, I noticed a flurry of activity in the back lot. A couple of people were raking leaves, moving rocks, and clearing weeds from the fence line. Travis took me over to meet Aaron and Stacy Franklin, who were prepping the lot for their new business: Franklin BBQ. The newest among trailer eateries, their concept is simple – fresh BBQ served in a laid back, family friendly atmosphere.
Fall = Football + Food + Friends
Every fall, I look forward to my favorite sport. Fans in burnt orange and white gather in droves, excitement fills the air, and beer is the ideal breakfast. That’s right, it’s tailgate time! Now, you might ask: tailgate, a sport…really? Yes, yes it is. Especially when you bring together a team of foodies, sports junkies, musicians, home brewers, and a techie or two.
Interview and Photo Shoot with Seth Mazow from “Year of the Pizza”
I first met Seth Mazow from Year of the Pizza at the Austin Bleetup (Blogger Meetup). He was one of those interesting guys that everyone wanted to talk to. Reason? Seth has cool perspectives on life and is excited about whatever he does. On top of that, he recently won a whole year of free pizza from Austin’s Home Slice Pizza by keeping his hand on an eggplant sub for 7 hours. How cool / funny is that?
Intrigued by his funny story and his even funnier blog, I set up a meeting with Seth to ask him a few questions and snap a few pictures for an interview to be featured on the TastingBuds.
Click here to read more about Seth Mazow of Year of the Pizza
Austin Froyo Update – Addition of YummyYo
In our comparison of remarkable downtown Frozen Yogurt stores, YummyYo in the 360 building was still pretty new and somehow flew beneath our radar when scouting out Froyo places.
I had the chance to swing by YummyYo a few weeks ago and it’s very solid. Their original tart flavor is probably a bit better than Yogurt Spot and their green tea flavor is excellent as well. I would rank them both as 2nd in taste behind Mamboberry. I also got to try their cookies and cream flavor which was surprisingly excellent (not chemical-y tasting like some of the other yogurt places around town).
Sugar Mama’s 1st Birthday Party Photos
August 29th, 2009 marked the one year anniversary of Sugar Mama’s Bakeshop. Olivia welcomed this landmark date with a huge backyard birthday party reminiscent of childhood celebrations, complete with food courtesy of Casserole Queens, two giant cakes, ice cream, and vodka from Tito’s (well reminiscent except for the booze part). Hundreds of cupcake lovers braved the heat and long lines to attend the party and from what I observed everyone had a great time.
Sugar Mama’s used the birthday party to make the announcement that they would now be selling mini pies. To launch their new product in style, Olivia hosted a ridiculously messy mini pie eating contest… Austin Cupcake Smackdown 1.0 eating champion Chris Floyd defeated all other challengers and took home the first prize valued at $350!
Elevation Burger Blogger Event
Being a huge fan of many bad-for-you foods, I was pumped when I heard about the Elevation Burger Food Blogger event. After all, don’t most all of us get a craving for a big, juicy burger once in a while? (Granted we don’t always want a giant 10 patty burger like the one pictured above – this one was just a prop for photo purposes).
In the increasingly crowded Austin burger scene, new burger joints are popping up all over the place next to established favorites. With all of these choices, how do Elevation’s burgers stack up? (bad pun I know…)
Click here to see what we thought and for more gratuitous burger photos
Guest blog from j9online – Marinara: Tomatoes…and Basil…and Squash… Oh My!
This post is courtesy of our great friend and Blogger Jeaneane McNulty from j9online!
Sometime around late July/early August, my garden gets unruly. It’s getting enough water (thanks to my handy-dandy timer-controlled drip irrigation system), an abundance of sunshine, and not enough human attention, so the things that like it hot start to get a little, um, “frisky”. One day, I noticed a pile of very ripe tomatoes where my countertop used to reside. Curious, I ventured out of the AC to check on the growing things and – gasp – the basil is bolting! The eggplant has suddenly produced a dozen ripe fruits! A mega-squash is visibly lengthening on the vine and the bell peppers, while copious, are tiny from overcrowding.
Folks, it’s time to stop the madness and make some marinara!
Parkside x2
- Trinchero Cabernet Sauvignon
For as long as I can remember, I have been more than willing to try any food, and really, any drink, at least once. After all, isn’t a sense of culinary adventure the key ingredient to being a foodie? Part of my adventurous nature is inherited from my Mexican lineage – memories of my childhood include pig slaughters, fish frys, and barbacoa for Sunday breakfast. The other side is continually nurtured by wonderful people I meet along the path of food discovery – a motley crew of cooks, mixologists, and people who just love to eat. Mollejas (sweetbreads)? Sure. Chicken liver pate? Bring it on. Duck rillette? Um…do you really have to ask?
FoodingBlog is now TastingBuds
We thought we were original using the name Foodingblog, but about a week ago we found out about a certain popular French company that also uses the word Fooding in their name.
Because we wish to respect the intellectual property of others, Foodingblog has now changed its name to TastingBuds, because that is what we are – a bunch of friends who love food and tasting all the world has to offer.
While we are sad to see the old name go, we love the new name because it better describes who we are and what we are all about (several of our Twitter followers have already commented that they like the new name too). Speaking of which, our Twitter address has changed too – we are now http://www.twitter.com/tastingbuds
If you liked our old blog, don’t worry – you will still have access to all of the great posts that were here before thanks to our techies Jon and Peter. We also have tons of new content planned for the next few months, so be on the lookout for more.
Thanks, we look forward to sharing more posts and making more friends in the food community!
Happy Tasting,
Peter
10 Rosés with the Chrontourage
One of my friends recently posted the following on his Facebook status: Prosecco is the new Rosé. While I love this sparkling Italian wine, and drink it quite often, I can’t imagine it will ever fully replace the rosé. Rosés are among the Fooding bloggers’ favorite summer wines, and we have featured several in Jon’s Random Wine Wednesday posts. Incidentally, Jon took a short hiatus from writing while he prepared for final exams, but Random Wine Wednesdays will return next week.
So what happens when our resident wine geek is swamped with grad school finals? Well, he sends a couple of stand-ins to the Chrontourage** Rosé tasting event and hopes for the best. Peter and I were absolutely happy to comply, and just one look at our score card (pictured above) will show you how much fun we had with this assignment. I had two things in mind as we tasted each wine: whether I would purchase it and what type of meal it would accompany. Since we shared a score card, the writing is tiny and pretty undecipherable, so see some of our tasting notes below.
- Segura Viudas Brut Rosé – Spanish Cava; we both loved it and would definitely purchase
- Chateau de Campuget Rosé – Neither of us were impressed; nothing distinctive about this wine
- Cruz de Piedra Rosé – This one was ok, but neither would purchase
- Gran Fuedo Rosé – Strong alcohol aroma; would not purchase
- Marques de Caceres Rosé – Another one with an alcohol aroma; would not purchase
- Mulderbosch Rosé – a Fooding blog favorite; would definitely purchase
- Goats Do Roam Rosé – light and fresh; would purchase
- Becker Provencal Rosé – Crisp and refreshing, with pear and strawberry notes; would purchase
- Columbia Crest Two Vines Rosé – I thought it was a little on the sweet side, but Peter said it was well balanced; would purchase
- Menage A Trois Rosé – another sweet one; would purchase; distinctive berry flavors
The wine tasting occurred just in time to get us through the final stretch of this never ending 100 degree summer. The very knowledgeable staff at Twin Liquors in the Hancock Center walked us through the tastings, answering questions and providing bits of information we would not have known otherwise.
One final note: Prosecco, I love you, but Rosé will always be my summer fling.
Cheers!
Kristina
** Chrontourage = the Austin Chronicle’s promotions team + fearless leader Logan Youree